<p>Seems like this would have come up, but my search didn't help me. Daughter is a junior in HS, graduate in 2016. My understanding is that income from 2015 will likely determine first year financial aid. If I have a job change during 2015 that results in LARGE loss in income, is there any way to have that taken into account? If not, I need to make a decision very soon so that 2015 income is not artificially high (compared to what I would expect in 2016).</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t you just bank some of the higher income salary you earn in 2015. Why would you want to earn less money?</p>
<p>Also, unless you are going to have a very low income and your kiddo is applying only to colleges that guarantee to meet full need, this could be financial gymnastics with no real financial aid gain.</p>
<p>The vast majority of colleges do not meet full need for all students. </p>
<p>If you have a job change in 2015 that results in a large loss in income, then your financial aid will be based on the lower total income for that year. If you were in a job that paid $100K a year and changed to a job that paid $50K a year midyear, instead of having the financial aid based on $100K, it would be based on $75K. After all, you did get paid the increased amount for a period of time that year. So there is no “artificial” high, but it would be based on actual amounts. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what kind of decision you are thinking about making. To deliberately make less money so that you get more financial aid is usually a self defeating move, since you aren’t going to net out more unless you are down to the wire. Also, most schools do not meet full need even if you have more–they gap, sometimes big time. So the more money you have, the more flexibility you will have. If it comes down to making a difference in what you would be able to afford–run NPCs to see if it does, then I suggest your student take a gap year during that uncertain year, and then her aid will be based on 2016 income the following year. I have friends who had their two kids do this==one took a year off before starting college; the other took a year’s leave of absence from college because a payout used to start a business, skewed the financials so that neither would get financial aid that would otherwise come to about $20K apiece from the schools to which they were accepted/attending. Schools would not budge and make exception, so the two kids worked that year, saved some money that went towards college costs about $10K right there and they saved another $40K in costs due to grants the two of them got based on the next year’s income figures. A nice savings. </p>
<p>I need to make a change for my own reasons–just trying to figure out how it will impact my kid. I’m not going to make her take a gap year if she doesn’t want to! Although sounds like she might have to consider it if she wants expensive school. If she was in 4th grade, I would change jobs in September, because that works best for me. But she isn’t, so just trying to figure out what to do. Bad news for me that schools are not flexible I guess.</p>
<p>Well…if you know you will be able to live on the reduced income…then put the excess from your current job into a 529 while you are still there. This would be used for educational expenses. As an asset, it is assessed as a parent asset at the 5.6% rate.</p>
<p>This will help with college costs for that first year anyway…and will also let you know whether your new, lower earnings will work for your other expenses.</p>